Aqueous, bright-drying floor polishes and aqueous floor care polishes which are buffable to obtain a shine have been extensively developed over the past thirty years. The bright-drying floor polishes generally comprise aqueous emulsions including a water-insoluble film-former, which is either wax or a waxy resin, together with a resin containing carboxyl groups which can be solubilized in water by neutralizing the carboxyl content of the resin with ammonia, borax, or a similar type alkaline material. The buffable compositions contain materials similar to the components of a bright-drying polish, but generally utilize larger amounts of waxy materials which, when the polishes are applied to a hard surface, such as a floor, can be buffed to a bright shine. These products which are largely self-maintaining are conventionally removed or stripped from the floor periodically and new coatings applied. More recently, floor care products which both clean and shine have been developed, such as Brite.RTM. manufactured and sold by S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Racine, Wis., the assignee of the present application. Floor care products whether bright drying or buffable polishes or of the clean and shine type are conventionally sold to the consumer as aqueous emulsions. As is apparent the major part of such emulsions is water and, accordingly, the cost of the product to the consumer is increased because of transportation and packaging costs.
Solid floor care products which can be reconstituted in water to provide bright-drying or optionally rebuffable floor finish have been suggested. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,138 in disclosing such a product states that typical aqueous coating compositions which may include plasticizers and cleaning compositions including detergent salts and builders can be spray dried to provide a dry, solid composition which contains sufficient alkaline reacting compound to provide a composition which can be reconstituted in water to provide a bright drying or rebuffable floor finish. The products described in the aforesaid patent and in other prior art, although in principle providing reconstitutable clean and shine floor care products, are not completely acceptable as a commercial product in that the compositions are not completely soluble in water and/or cannot be readily solubilized merely by adding water at low water temperature, and/or do not have adequate film-forming content.